I just bought this set and have spent most of my morning/early afternoon watching all four shows. I enjoyed every minute of it. I just wish I was around to watch the February 9 show live! My question is this: each show runs about 57 minutes (give or take). Are we really seeing the "complete" shows, or has there been some PC editing (cigarette commercials; etc.)? Or did CBS take a three-minute break in between shows in 1964/1965?
I believe a few ads may be missing(or were replaced by others), but don't forget, CBS promo ads might also be MIA, too. And of course, local station air time, remember! ED
Why aren't the cool later Beatles vidoes that were sent to Ed (Hello Goodbye, for instance) included as part of this package???
A couple of cigarette commercials were definitely replaced on the set. As for why the later promos aren't there, the answer is simple: Apple owns them.
Either due to rights issues, or Apple Corps is saving them for later....which could be a long time! That, and because the package focused on the four particular eps, and someone felt there was no need to add extraneous bonuses to it. Can't say I missed them in this context, but maybe when MMT or some other package is remastered or sees light of day, we might get some of that stuff in its entirety. ED
Slightly OT...has anyone seen the complete rehearsals for the Miami show? Do they do complete run throughs of the songs? Did they film the rehearsals for the 1st Sullivan appearance?
I've only seen the Beatle performances from the Miami rehearsal. It's a complete dress rehearsal before an audience, same songs they did later that evening, complete songs, but a much looser performance...John adjusts his mic stand as the group begins "She Loves You", does a goofy grin into the camera when it does a close up, and as you've seen in Anthology, tells the audience to "Shut up while he's talking" as Paul tries to intro the next song. I read something last weekend to the effect that while surely all of the dress rehearsals for each Sullivan appearance were video taped, only the Miami one still exists. Perhaps because they were doing a remote broadcast, they kept it as a back-up in case something went wrong. Why it was archived, and the others apparently weren't, who knows?
As I recall, for quite some time, the Beatles' performance in one of the originally-aired shows (I believe it was the Miami one) was considered no longer to be of broadcast quality, and that performance was substituted with their dress rehearsal footage. This was obviously prior to the restoration that was done for the "First US Visit" tape/laserdisc. It appears the decision was made soon after the original broadcast, and thus, that's the reason why the one set of rehearsal takes would have been saved. Since that time (1991), the original versions have once again been used. And there are indeed some cigarette commercials missing from the DVD. It irks me too, but it's a relatively small price to pay, I guess. -Kevin
Listen - I am as anti smoking as the next guy, probably more so watching my Grandma die of lung cancer - but to take out the cigarette ads seems a little extreme to me. What was the rationale behind this? I want to see a complete historical product. What next year they really decide that white wheat will kill you, so lets cut out the Pillsbury Doe Boy. Then Anacin - oh it causes ulcers - should not be promoting that. How about the Lipton instant hot tea - gotta wonder what carcinogens were in there.... get those ads out. This is really stupid historical revisionism.
Remembering my days of extreme TV watching as a youth: Usually the networks gave the local stations a minute at the bottom of the hour for local commercials and a quick ID, and there was usually a 1 1/2 minute gap after a TV show, after which there'd usually be a short promo or two for an upcoming network show, a couple 30-second commercials from the local affiliate, then the local ID, then into the next show. None of this seamless seguing from one network show to another that is so common (and disconcerting!) these days.
